Demigod Games 3
'Chapter 3 (Hunty) ' Hedge wakes me in the morning by dumping ice cold water over my head. I sit up almost immediately, sputtering and wiping the water from my eyes. "What's your problem?!" I shout as I stand up and launch my now soaking wet blanket at him. Gleeson deflects it easily with a stick. Wait. A stick? I look at his club and glance pointedly at it then at the bearded saytr. "What ''is ''that," I point at his oversized twig. Hedge purses his lips and looks down at his club. "What this old thing?" He hoists it over his shoulder. "It's only a 45th edition mahogony celestial bronze incrusted baseball bat from the 2060's..." He pauses then whispers. "A.D." My jaw drops. "A...b-b-baseball bat? Like...the kind from back when The United States existed? IN THE A.D'S!!!!" I'd only ever seen pictures of baseball games and other sports when my friend, who's the son of the mayor (he gets extra privileges for being the Capitol's favorite) invited me over to play at his house. We were really little back then, but I think his name was Carter. He always acted strange, dissapeared all the time but who am I to judge a person? Anyways, Hedge nods and makes like he hit a homerun. "Ace!" He crows as he turns around to walk out the door. "Wait, Gleeson...Coach." I put an icy hand on his shoulder. "Where's Annabeth?" He gives me a sort of lopsided grin as he shifts his baseball bat. "What, that blonde haired female who came with you yesterday? The one- dare I say it- that you're going all sweet on?" My cheeks burn red, and truth is I never thought of Annabeth like that before the Reaping...until I realized I couldn't live without her. ''Stop it. ''I scold myself. ''That doesn't mean that you like her. Besides...what if she doesn't like you back? ''I'd seen plenty of guys back home get rejected by girls and spend the rest of their miserable lives cooped up in their houses in the far muddy corner, the part of the house that even daylight can't reach. I shudder to think that I'd ever become like that. "Uh, no sir. She's just a friend." I clear my throat. Hedge raises an eyebrow and stalks out, calling over his shoulder. "She's the next room over. She's awake, so don't have to be afraid that she's ''indisposed ''or anything" Again, I can feel the heat rising through the pores of my skin and I quickly throw on a shirt, as quickly as I toss that thought out of my mind. After I've washed my hands and combed my hair as best as I can, I walk over to Annabeth's dorm. "Hey Wise Girl," I call through the crack of the door. She's left it open- no scratch that Coach probably left it open after he did his daily wake up call. She doesn't answer and I sigh and push the door open. She's sitting on her bed, wearing the traditional clothing for factions 5-7. Orange T-Shirt and fitted black jeans. The people back home would kill for this kind of clothing. "Wise Girl?" I repeat as I walk closer to her. Her eyes are red with tears, I can see a photo cradled in her hands. "Percy." She says, not looking up as she let's her tears drip down onto the picture frame. I lean in for a better look. It's of me and her. I'm not sure how to react to that, I mean I have a picture of Annabeth and I- once when the Capitol came to town for a month they brought this thing they called a Photo Booth with them. They wanted to make cash, and Annabeth and I wanted to try it out. So we scrounged an saved every penny until we came up with enough money to take one picture and two copies. And yes, I'd brought that picture with me, it's a replica of hers. But I wasn't crying on my bed clutching it like it was the last bite of food in Olympus. "Annabeth, stop." I take her hand, which I realize fits perfectly in mine. Before I can start getting emberassed again I pull my hand away and turn towards the door. "Breakfast is ready. I can smell it." I bite my lip. "Oh, and training starts in about an hour." I turn and run before I can say anything stupid, I can still hear her sobs as I turn the corner and fly down the stairwell. ''----- '' By the time breakfast has ended Annabeth has pulled herself together. I feel bad for running out like that, I can't meet her stormy grey eyes. I piled my plate high with sausages, breakfast steak, oranges and bananas, yogurt and breakfast pie. (Who knew, right?) Annabeth however put a small cluster of grapes on her plate and began to eat absently. Hedge took us to the B Level on the compound and pushed us inside a large metal-like room. "Train hard. I'll be back. Probably." With that he swung his bat 360* and jumped back into the elevator. (Annabeth tells me that's what that sliding box thing is. The one that takes you up and down floors, is called an "Elephantor" or something like that.) We turn around to face the other demigod tributes. I keep my face expressionsless as I lock eyes with all of them. A tall blonde lady from the front turns and looks at us. "So glad you could join us faction 7. Please, join the circle." Annabeth rolls her eyes at me and grabs my hand and drags us over to the circle. "As I was saying," the lady continues. "You'll be in the Arena for 2 weeks. At the end of those 2 weeks 13 of you will be dead. Your deaths may not come fighting other tributes mind you," The blonde woman turns and looks at me. "Your existence could dim because of natural causes. Starvation, animal attacks, freezing to death. I'd suggest that you take great care in learning how to handle these situations." She turns and faces the other half of the group. She's still talking, but I can't register what she's saying. It was almost as if...when she talked about the natural deaths that she was talking to ''me. ''But that's impossible. The Capitol is not aloud to play favorites. When the lady is done talking everyone runs off to different stations, archery, javelins, lava rock climbing wall, pegasi riding (there will be wild pegasi in the Arena I've been told) hunting, trapping, and other survival skills. I stay put though until it's just me and the blonde woman. "Ma'am," I approach her slowly as if she's a wild animal. "What's your name?" Her eyes flash uncertaintly as she glances at me and then at the other Trainers in the room as they guide demigods about. None of them are paying attention to us. Finally she lets out a tiny sigh. "It's been a long time since anyone asked me that. Longer since, that anyone talked to me about anything except the Games." She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "If you must know, I am Hestia. Goddess of the Home and the Hearth." I do a sharp intake of my breath. "Wait...your a goddess?" She nods. "I can appear however I want, but you musn't let the others know my power. It would ruin my masters plan to...uh...train the demigods." I narrow my eyes. She's totally hiding something, but going behind a goddess' wishes sounds like a death wish to me. I've already got enough problems on my hands. I nod and smile at her. "For what it's worth Hestia, I think you should think for yourself. I'm sure you have amazing ideas." I try for a smile. The goddess actually cracks a smile herself. "Was that sarcasm Perseus?" "Some." I admit. "Good. Now, I must continue on, but take this and do not let anyone know you have it until after people have gathered weapons from the Cornucopia." She drops something into the palm of my hand, hurridely looks around then stalks stiffly off in another direction. I open my hand. It's Riptide...but the guards took that from me when I entered the Reaping. "How...?" I whisper as I push the pen into my pocket, concealing it from sight. And with that, I head off to join Annabeth at how to make traps. 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